Brioche "cupbread" with Varities Filling

My family loves sweet soft bread. Some of our favorite are the water-roux based bread and brioche bread. As a variation and idea for children's lunch box, I made this week brioche "cupcake" bread filled with some children's favorite filling: chicken mushroom, cheese and chocolate sprinkle.


It is basically brioche bread, but I baked it in a cupcake paper and filled it with some of our children's fave fillings. The effect? They found it cute to eat bread cupcake. And since it is small, I could pack a few cupbread into my oldest's lunch box. He found it practical and he could finish all the bread easily. The plus point for me, I just have to defrost a few cupbreads the night before, put it in the microwave (low heat for only 40 seconds), and pack the cupbreads in his lunch box. Fast in the morning, although I have to prepare them before (2 days before). However, despites the 2-days preparation time, I could prepare at least 30 cupbreads in advance. More than enough for a week supply.


It is better to warm the bread in the oven (also low heat), but for practicality in the midst of morning chaos time, I prefer to warm the bread using microwave. And luckily, my critics are happy enough with that. Aside for the success, I feel that my freezer does not have enough space now for my stocks.

RECIPE IS UPDATED: 29th May 2020

Chicken Mushroom Filling
Chicken fillet (chopped)
Champignon mushroom (cut)
Garlic (I used 4 cloves garlic, pressed)
1-2 tbsp oyster sauce
1 tbsp sweet soy sauce
2 tbsp soy sauce
salt and pepper to taste


Heat the oil, and the brown the garlic. Add the chicken and other ingredients (except mushroom). When the chicken is almost cooked, add the mushroom. Taste and adjust it with salt and pepper. Put aside.


Chocolate Sprinkle Filling
2-3 tbsp butter room temperature
Chocolate sprinkle (I used pure/dark chocolate variant)

Mix the butter and chocolate sprinkle using spoon until they form an almost homogen mass. Put aside.


Cheese Filling
Grated cheese


Cupbread Ingredients
500 grams white bread flour (high gluten flour)
7 grams instant yeast (my local brand yeast, suggests 7 grams for every 500 gr flour)
1 tsp salt
6 eggs (or 5 if you use bigger size eggs)
70 grams sugar
125 ml milk + 1 tbsp creme fraiche
250 grams butter (soft, room temperature)
1 egg, beaten for egg wash

Method
1. Place the flour in the bowl, sugar at one side of bowl, salt at one side of bowl and the instant yeast in the middle. Mix the dry ingredients well, you can immediately use the knead (hook) extension of your mixer.
2. After the dry ingredients well mixed, add the eggs and mix it well.
3. Add the milk and condensed milk and mix again the dough until the milk is good incorporated.
4. Cut the butter in cubes, and add them one by one into the bowl. Knead the dough until the gluten develops well. This is when the dough does not stick anymore to the side of the bowl. It is, however, a bit greasy compared to the dough of normal sandwich loaf, due to the high content of butter and eggs.You should be able to stretch the dough easily, although it will not form a relatively thinner membrane like the dough of sweet bread with water roux method. But it should be similar to that.
5. Remove the dough to a plastic bowl and cover it with cling film (plastic wrap). If you cannot bake it at the same day, store it in the refrigerator overnight, or around 24 hours to let it proof. If you can immediately bake it, you can let it proof at room temperature. By then, the volume of the dough should be at least twice.
6. After the dough rise double in size, punch down the dough and divide into several pieces, around 30-40 grams each. Flat the dough using roll pin and put the filling in the middle of the dough. Cover the filling with the dough and pinch the edges and press it to make sure that the filling will not leak out. Put each bread in a cupcake paper (I used cupcake pan to hold the cupcake paper).
 7. Let the dough to raise again for around 2-3 hours, outside the refrigerator, at room temperature. Brush the top of the bread with the beaten egg.
8. Heat the oven, 180Celcius. I baked 2x 12 cupcake pans (plus extra 6 more cupbreads) and used both lower and upper heat. I exchanged the position halfway through the baking time. Bake the bread for around 30 minute or until the skewer inserted into the bread comes clean. Let the bread cool on the rack before serving it.


My oldest son loves the cupbread so much, especially the chicken mushroom filling. He even gave a couple to one of his best friends, who claimed that he loved the cupbread with chocolate sprinkle filling. And my youngest? He simply ate the filling only and pushed away the bread.